home for christmas

this year was really special for miles and me because we hosted christmas for the first time. i loved it. i have always dreamed of spending christmas at home. i had these visions of waking up early and sneaking into the living room to see presents from santa. mason and dahlia are still too young to really get into the whole christmas thing. mason seemed really indifferent to the gifts. that is good. we try to not go overboard with the gift giving. mason and dahlia each get one gift from miles and me and then one gift from santa. of course my huge family buys them presents also so they end up with tons.

my parents and siblings along with miles mother joined us for the holiday. everyone came over at about eleven and we had brunch and opened gifts. this process took a really long time. i loved it though. i always want it to last longer. after presents we started cooking dinner. this was so much fun. i love to hang out in the kitchen drinking champagne while chatting and cooking. everything was so delicious. we served a really fancy dinner with turkey roulade and beef tenderloin along with asparagus and mashed potatoes. mmmm. the food was really yummy. miles did most of the cooking. thanks dear.

hosting christmas was a lot of work. if we host christmas again next year i think i will try to be more organized and get stuff done earlier. ha ha. i always say that.

setting up for christmas

christmas is almost here. yikes. oh my gosh. we are so behind this year. i really love christmas eve. there is so much excitement in the air. we had so much fun today. we baked cookies and brought them over to miles' cousins house. they had a little party that we attended. it was so fun to see them on christmas eve. we don't usually get to see his aunt and cousins for christmas. i really like miles family. they are so sweet and fun.

of course now i am way behind for setting up our house for christmas. i did get the tables set up and decorated. everything looks so pretty. now it is time to finish wrapping presents, and start cooking tomorrows dinner. i am so happy. christmas is here.

the finished card

we finally finished our christmas cards and put them in the mail today. man. they just took forever to finish. we started them a week ago. we are more behind this year than last year. oh well at least they are done. i hope some people get them before christmas. i think they turned out really cute.

cookie exchange

i went to a cookie exchange last night at my sister susan's house. it was lots of fun. i ate way too many cookies. i feel like i have a bit of a sugar hangover today. is that possible? there were five girls and each made two different types of cookies. we made sure to have at least six of each type to trade and then extra cookies for sampling. i think the winner of the night for me was the toffee. it was just a little bit of heaven. i think that is actually a candy instead of a cookie, but it was so good. now it is time to try the peppermint one. mmmmm

photo shoot

it is raining today so we decided it was a good day to do our photo shoot for this years christmas card. the kids were pretty good. i really wanted the pictures to have a bluish tone that would make it look really cold outside. i think having the rain helped. miles took the photos. i love that we take our own pictures now. it is so much easier than dragging the kids to the mall. it was a fun photo shoot and the kids got to stay in their christmas jammies all day. here are some of the outtakes.

christmas tree

we got our tree on friday and finally finished decorating it today. it is so pretty. i always make miles get the tree on the twelfth of december. we got engaged the night we got our christmas tree seven years ago. it just so happened that we got our tree on december twelfth that year so now we always have to get our tree on that day.

i just love decorating the tree. i carefully unwrapped all the ornaments and miles put them on the tree with help from mason and dahlia. we have been lucky this year and have not had any ornament casualties yet. dahlia is much better about not throwing the christmas ornaments than mason was, and mason is now old enough to know better. thank goodness. he did however refuse to put the train ornaments on the tree and insisted on playing with them. choo choo.

visit with santa

jen and i took the kids to see santa today. i was a bit worried that mason would scream. i didn't even try it last year because mason screamed so much the year before. they were pretty good. mason did not want to have anything to do with santa. so funny. jen finally convinced him to sit next to santa by telling him he could get a thomas the train set for christmas. he reluctantly sat next to santa long enough to snap a photo, although he is leaning far away from him. dahlia was better. she smiled a little bit before crying for mama. bodhi was the champ. he loved sitting on santa's lap. i guess we know who is the good little kid this christmas.

she is walking

dahlia is now walking. she is no longer just taking a few steps, but walking from one side of the room to the other. she just started this on thursday. she is a very cautious walker. she doesn't just go for it. she walks slowly and carefully. it is so fun to watch.

so stylish

yes it is true. my little girl looks way more stylish than i do when we go out shopping. i am going to have to work on my look.

shopping trips

this is my little girl after a long day of shopping. we have been doing lots of shopping lately. i know we have been shopping too much because every time we get into the car mason asks if we are going to toys r us. he thinks this is part of our routine. we have a ton of kids to buy for this year. it doesn't help that i am a very bad shopper. i just can't make a decision. i sit and debate every purchase far too long. this does not bode well with even the most patient people, and two little kids are not the most patient people. this has led to more than one melt down in a store. (theirs not mine, although i have come close). i am going to try to sit down tonight and do some good old fashioned internet shopping. that should help.